Preaching Hate

Image from a Watchtower publication depicting the future for non-believers at Armageddon.

The March 15, 2015 article “What ISIS Really Wants” by The Atlantic is a brilliant piece of journalism offering real insight into what drives this religious movement. I highly recommend it.

What scared me reading this article is how well my Jehovah’s Witness mind could understand ISIS psychology. If the Bible was the book for ISIS and not the Quran – they might be indistinguishable from Jehovah’s Witnesses or another fundamentalist Christian group, and we might be praising them for their Godly devotion. In fact, reading this article I was thinking to myself that if I was a devout Muslim, I would have only two choices: Decisively denounce ISIS and possibly my entire faith, or join them.

To my mind, you cannot serve God halfhearted. If you know his will, you serve him in truth to your best knowledge.

ISIS represents a literal interpretation of the Quran. In that sense, they seek to follow their book to the best of their ability. Part of me can admire that, is even sympathetic toward them – except for the fact that it goes against everything that makes us human. Evil things cannot come from God, unless our God is Satan.

Likewise, it serves no purpose to repeat the virtues of Jehovah’s Witnesses, while at the same time sugar-coating the hateful propaganda that comes out of the pages of the Watchtower. Hateful practices are not Christian. Using the caliphate as a comparison to the Jehovah’s Witnesses theocracy is perhaps a bit shocking, but certain practices of the JW organization are so loathsome that they need to be exposed in the clearest light possible.

Imitate The Zeal – Slaughtering Apostates

Perhaps you think comparing these two religious organizations is ludicrous. After all, Jehovah’s Witnesses are widely considered politically neutral, and are known for their non-violence. But Jesus taught us to look beyond the outward appearance and into the heart:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” (Matthew 23:27)

“Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart.” (Proverbs 23:28)

I recently started an Instagram account @beroeanpickets. Within days, someone had taken it upon themselves to ‘warn’ everyone about me, and I received threats of physical violence against me and my family, involving the word hospital.

Granted, this is anecdotal evidence of just a single individual – and in all fairness, physical violence is not encouraged. Most Witnesses are ‘peace loving’. But as this article will demonstrate, the members of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses are cultivating feelings of hate in their followers by what they write about apostates.

The November 15, 2011 Study Edition of The Watchtower had a study article which contained the following in its opening paragraph:

“Jehu was a champion of pure worship. In carrying out this role he was energetic, prompt, relentless, zealous and courageous. Jehu manifested qualities that we would do well to imitate.“

And later the study explains:

“The prophet Elisha sent one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu as King and to instruct him to kill every male of the apostate house of Ahab.”

“Jehu announced that he intended to hold ‘a great sacrifice’ for Baal. (2 Ki. 10:18, 19) ‘This is a clever play on words on the part of Jehu,’ says one scholar. While the term employed here “generally means ‘sacrifice,’ it is also used of the ‘slaughter’ of apostates.”

“It is true that Jehu spilled much blood. Yet, the Scriptures present him as a courageous man…”

“Though the thought of violence is unpleasant, we should realize that in those days, Jehovah used his servants to carry out his judgments.”

While violence is not permitted now – it would be under a theocratic government. That is exactly what the caliphate proclaims to be: a Theocracy. And under theocratic rule, certain laws apply that don’t normally apply. The Atlantic article states:

Before the caliphate, ‘maybe 85 percent of the Sharia was absent from our lives,’ Choudary told me. ‘These laws are in abeyance until we have khilafa’ —a caliphate—‘and now we have one.’ Without a caliphate, for example, individual vigilantes are not obliged to amputate the hands of thieves they catch in the act. But create a caliphate, and this law, along with a huge body of other jurisprudence, suddenly awakens.

Yes, in their current state, Jehovah’s Witnesses describe themselves as “limited by the laws of the worldly nation in which we live and also by the laws of God through Jesus Christ”, according to the following Questions from Readers:

The Watchtower 11/15/1952 pg. 703

So being “limited” in the sense we cannot use physical violence – even against our own flesh-and-blood – how is a Witness to follow the direction of the Governing Body to show “courage” like Jehu against apostates? Just how are we told to “imitate” him?

Loathe, Hate and Abhor!

On the godly quality of hate, the Quran teaches:

Allah abhors disbelievers – Surah 35:26

Yet in contrast, our King Jesus Christ said:

“If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?” [Are not even ISIS members doing that?] (Matthew 5:46)

Jesus said we will recognize his true disciples by their fruit, their love. True Christian love is not just the smiling and hugging at assemblies – greeting those who agree with you. It includes loving those who hate you.

Yet, as Jehovah’s Channel of Communication, his very spokesperson on earth, the Governing Body knows better than Jesus. In fact, they outright contradict him! The Watchtower of October 1st 1993 states:

“A Christian must hate (in the Biblical sense of the word) those who have inseparably attached themselves to badness … they are not curious about apostate ideas. On the contrary, they feel ‘a loathing’ toward those who have made themselves God’s enemies, but they leave it to Jehovah to execute vengeance.”

Yes, The Watchtower tells it’s adherents to HATE apostates. Consider just how consistent this hate speech has been over the last 60 years:

The Watchtower 7/15/1961

The Watchtower 7/15/1974 pg. 442

The Watchtower 10/1/1952 pg. 599

The Prophet Said, ‘War is Deceit’

In the Paris attacks of November 2015, at least one of the terrorists had previously posed as a refugee in Greece. The subtitle comes from the Hadith – Bukhari 52:269.

There are two forms of lying to non-believers that are permitted under certain circumstances, taqiyya and kitman. These circumstances are typically those that advance the cause [of] Islam – in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them. (Source)

Jehovah’s Witnesses are also at war. The Watchtower, January 15, 1983, p. 22: “This fact cannot be overemphasized: We are in a war with superhuman foes, and we constantly need to be aware of this.”

“So in time of spiritual warfare it is proper to misdirect the enemy by hiding the truth. It is done unselfishly; it does not harm anyone; on the contrary, it does much good. Today God’s servants are engaged in a warfare, a spiritual, theocratic warfare, a warfare ordered by God against wicked spirit forces and against false teachings… At all times they must be very careful not to divulge any information to the enemy that he could use to hamper the preaching work.” (Watchtower 5/1/1957 pp. 285-286)

Such misdirection and hiding information recently is making headlines in relation to the Organization covering up Child Abuse. If the Australia Branch kept over 1000 cases of pedophilia hidden from the authorities, how many cases are on the list in the United States, or even world-wide?

Anyone who watched the videos of the court would feel a disgust in their stomach for the way in which several people made misleading claims. I highly recommend you review some of the outrageous misleading statements made in the Royal Commission of Australia’s probe into child molestation. Take for example the false statements of Terrence O’Brien (Head of Australia’s Branch), and how the lawyer tries to save face.

Diseased Minds

When, in the summer of 2011, Jehovah’s Witnesses started calling apostates “diseased” (see the image above), The Independent wrote an article wherein the spokesperson for the Watchtower Society blatantly lied:

“Rick Fenton, a spokesperson for the Watchtower Society, insisted last night that ostracisation was “a personal matter for each individual to decide for himself”. “Any one of Jehovah’s Witnesses is free to express their feelings and to ask questions,” he said. “If a person changes their mind about Bible-based teachings they once held dear, we recognize their right to leave.”

It is not a personal matter to shun, when there are organizational punishments for those who continue to associate with organizationally shunned individuals. A Witness is not free to express their feelings of doubt in the Governing Body without consequences – as I have personally experienced. If we were free to do so, we would not be labeled as apostates for speaking truth to our readers. And we might have the right to leave – at the cost of having our family and friends loathe us, view us with disgust.

Torture

Jehovah’s Witnesses engage in organizational torture by their unloving practices of shunning, breaking up families and causing severe suffering and damage to the victims. This policy of hate needs to end. Those who dare to speak against the leadership face torture. Those who dare to leave face torture. Those who have left will continue to be tortured until they break down and return.

[Torture is] the deliberate, systematic, or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting alone or on the orders of any authority, to force another person to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason (World Medical Association, 1975).

[Torture is] any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by, or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity (United Nations, 1987).

Psychological Torture is Torture (Source). Shunning is torture. It is called the Social Death Penalty (Source), hurting even more than bullying:

Because ostracism can be so deadly, researchers think we have developed acute sensitivity to it. It can freak us out even more than being hit, ridiculed or yelled at, causing our bodies and minds to suffer exquisitely. Our need to belong is so strong that we experience psychological and physical effects right away. Neuroscientists have found that social rejection is experienced much like physical pain — connected to the same neural circuitry.

That Jehovah’s Witnesses resort to forms of psychological torture poses ethical questions. Does the end justify the means? It is often asked – “Is torture bad when it seems to give results?” The organized psychological torture among Jehovah’s Witnesses results in a “clean congregation” and makes many who left, return to the congregation.

In the International Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2005, an article appeared titled “Is Torture Ever Morally Justifiable?” Seumas Millar tries to defend the position that in some extreme emergencies it is morally justified. Even so, he states that this should not be ‘institutionalized’.

From the outsider’s viewpoint this seems a ridiculous premise to even consider, but to the insider, the very matter of eternal life is at stake. There is no more important “result” for which to contemplate such measures than eternal salvation. Knowing that salvation is not tied to an organization but to faith alone, makes such torture especially hard to bear, because it serves no justifiable end.

Allegiance & Vehicle for Salvation

ISIS obeys the words of their book to the letter. Everything they say is backed by their scripture. But obedience to the edicts of the Caliph carries the authority of the will of God. From The Atlantic article we first mentioned at the beginning of this article:

“The caliphate, Cerantonio told me, is not just a political entity but also a vehicle for salvation. Islamic State propaganda regularly reports the pledges of baya’a (allegiance) rolling in from jihadist groups across the Muslim world. Cerantonio quoted a Prophetic saying, that to die without pledging allegiance is to die jahil (ignorant) and therefore die a ‘death of disbelief.’”

The same can be said for JW.ORG as a vehicle for salvation, and obedience to the organization is a form of baya’a (allegiance). A review of the Watchtower studies of 2014 shows that the most important thing for a Jehovah’s Witness today is obedience and sacrifice to the Organization.

Enter the New World Society – the Theocracy. Its leader? Christ – ruling invisibly. Its representatives? The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. As recently as the annual meeting of 2015, the Governing Body confirmed that they are God’s spokespersons. Speaking out against the Governing Body is a rebellion against God himself.

In the second baptism question of Jehovah’s Witness the candidates align themselves with this Salvation-Organization:

“Do you understand that your dedication and baptism identify you as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in association with God’s spirit-directed organization? Having answered yes to these questions, candidates are in a right heart condition to undergo Christian baptism.”

The underlined sentence indicates that someone who does not associate with this organization is not in a right heart condition to undergo Christian baptism. Therefore, other Christians who are not making recognition of this organization are false.

Just like it is a duty for every Muslim in the world to join the Caliphate – according to ISIS – it is the duty of every Christian in the world to “leave false religion” and join the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses – according to the Watchtower. Those who refuse to listen to the coming judgment warning, face ‘death’ at Armageddon.

To Do the Impossible

Christ gave his life for his enemies. (Romans 5:10) He was ridiculed. He loved them. (Matthew 12:32) He was tortured. He still loved them. He was put to death. He died for them.

By all means, condemn what is evil, expose falsehoods; but do not harbor hate for your fellow man in your heart. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies – this is the clearest answer we can give to all the hate in this world. Forgiveness and love are central to Christianity.

Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times’” (Matthew 18:21-22). “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14).

Although the Governing Body continues to persecute us, we should pray for them that they may one day repent. As for ISIS members – I believe they are genuinely deceived in their own twisted ideology. Who can tell us what is the solution for this current world crisis? As the article in The Atlantic pointed out, one way is to combat ideology with ideology.

We do our part on Beroean Pickets, fighting ideology with ideology. Man’s word with God’s Word. Hold your head up high as you walk out of your hall for the last time. Hold your head up high as your family bids you farewell, as you kiss your children goodnight for the last time. Whatever we are made to suffer, put it in God’s hands.

Sorry to hear you have been threatened alex . We really do have to be careful. While all of us know the official message of the watchtower is one of a peaceful new world thier attitude toward those who speak out against thier authority is far from peaceable . The problem is in any organisation your always going to get those who go to extremes . Ive had some particulary unpleasant experiences with the witnesses over the years to say the least . Stay safe mate .

Thank Alex for a fine article,it actually put in perspective something I have been thinking for a long time,and that was how the mind set that has been created in the brothers and sisters,by slowly getting them to surrender their conscience,incrementally,sets them up to accept the propaganda against apostates. I faced this earlier in the week as I delivered a letter to my elder body outlining 10 things that I could no longer accept as Jehovah’s truth,their response was I was fighting over words,yet as I mentioned to to them,many JW doctrines are reduced down to and presented as a… Read more »

Hi Wild Olive I hope you are ok. I always have a stress attack when I have to deal with the elders. This week I informed our group overseer of the scriptural reasons as to why I am no longer handing in a fs report. So I expect to be executed soon too and my husband is already in front of the firing squad, the elders are at present trying to pin him down to an investigative meeting. A thought that has strengthened me is that our own salvation is secondary to Jehovah’s sovereignty and the sanctification of His name.… Read more »

Hi Anonymous – more than a year after posting this comment I can add that I am very happy and enjoy deep inner peace and contentment as I am no longer part of the JW circuis. I wrote a letter resigning from the WT org. And was very happy yesterday to mail the local Regional Building Office, who invited me to volunteer at Bethel, that I have disfellowshipped the organization and any who support it for tolerating the gross wrongdoing of child abuse. So the elders tried to execute me, but it backfired and I enjoy the freedom of the… Read more »

Thanks Alex, you make some excellent points in this article. With the current atrocities in Paris, it’s sad to think that many B&S, if not all, will first and foremost see this as further evidence that we are living in the last days and will be gleefully rubbing their hands together wondering if this will escalate into provoking the “UN to turn on false religion,” and bring on Armageddon and their own salvation, rather than reflect on the real issues and human tragedy here. It’s a good example of how good people can be corrupted by an ideology – much… Read more »

Beautifully written “Alex” one of my greatest “contentions” with some of the more “heinous” “perspectives” taught there …One sometimes wonders how masterfully and surreptitiously the tentacles of power : and the imitation of hierarchy (such as predominately displayed for centuries in the Catholic organization) has superimposed itself upon the hapless followers of a “new and improved” priest class .catches those seeking for a guidance that excels what humanity could ever offer …our desire for “kingship” falls as it did in “old Israel” ..but we have been shown what a true “king” of life is in Christ Jesus …no sitting an… Read more »

Great article Alex It’s sad, people who love God and Christ, yes even the (G B) will happily resort to hate speech ( against even their brothers, who love God and Christ, but may disagree with teachings or their predictions which failed) and find it necessary to use such language like – “poisonous” “mentally diseased” opponents and their “gangrenous” accusations, urging loyal Witnesses to “feel a loathing” against such ones. (w93 10/1 p. 19 par. 15) and label such ones who love God apostates. Unfortunately, many JW’s and even myself bought into this hate speech of such propaganda , our… Read more »

Regarding “hateful propaganda”: The June 22, 2000 issue of Awake contained the articles, “Propaganda Can Be Deadly”, “The Manipulation of Information” and “Do Not Be a Victim of Propaganda!”. The irony is that nearly everything in these Awake articles could be applied to the WT itself. If you do a word search for “propaganda” on the WT CD, you will find hundreds of instances of the term. WT almost seems obsessed by the concept that someone might say something to disagree with them, and as if in a ‘preemptive strike’, they will dismiss any and all criticisms as propaganda. (That… Read more »

This excellent episode in the current series “The Brain” on PBS how crucial/indispensable to human interaction is for the well-being of our species; and by implication, how evil the practice of shunning: